Jeselnik on Thursday...or, as I like to call him, creep who tried to bone my friend when she'd gotten drunk. WTF interviews even with people I don't like tend to be listenable, though, so I'm sure I'll tune in.

IANUCCI: A lot of people think I'm so focussed on mocking news and media conventions because of a conscious and earned anger at the way information is twisted and devalued in our society, but really it's because a copy of The Sun blew into my pram when I was small and touched my genitals

pfft if wtf was just shit american comics like maron i'd have stopped listening already. it is the people he isn't used to or do something different that have been the most fascinating imo. And I don't see why a British satirical news paper would be so different to the guy who did The Realist or Onion writers.

Just saying that I don't envision this podcast taking an international lean anytime in the near future, except for occasional live shows in other countries or impromptu interviews with new non-American comedian friends.

Arsenio situation isn't that complicated—a lot of the local tv affiliates that carried his show had to drop it when Letterman's show started on the national CBS network, and that essentially killed it off).

he did that Sammo Hung cop show, where halfway through they realised they should bring in a sidekick who could deliver some snappy dialogue, as the star couldn't actually speak English

presumably he went hiding for a bit after the talk show was axed, but also got paid enough for it that he's been able to live a comfortable middle-class life and doesn't have a desperate need to see his face on posters

some of my favorite eps have been ones with guys i didn't really know about, like ron shock or eddie brill. i'll listen to any older guy who's been around the block a few times. albert brooks would be cool, or even jeff foxworthy or ron white. or judy tenuta.

He guest-hosted on Access Hollywood the other day and he legitimately looked like he hasn't aged at all. Very odd.

wrt leno i'd love to hear that ep, and i dont think maron would try to put the screws to him - i think he respects leno's old stand-up more than you guys do even if he isnt a fan of the tonight show, and i dont think it'd be hard for him to find a sympathetic angle

yeah i bet a leno interview would be fairly amicable. maron was raving about that war for late night book for weeks, and after reading it, i actually had a little more sympathy for leno. he's a hack but a hard-working hack and i can't really blame him personally for anything that happened with the conan debacle. plus maron is never a dick to the famous guests.

i've been open about not liking maron much as a personality/comedian so keep that in mind but the idea of the maron/wtf sitcom sounds pretty awful.

Bill Carter's book (The War For Late Night) is a decent resource for what happened/didn't happen to Arsenio. It's largely forgotten now, but Hall was consistently beating Carson in the ratings in major markets in the late 80s/early 90s -- in some cases, crushing him. The fact that he vanished soon after is some combination of bewildering and fucked up.

Yeah, I'm still not very sold on Maron himself, he grates on me some times, particularly when he is doing his little pre-interview bits. But I do like how even the guests I couldn't really care less about turn out to be interesting listens. Like the recent Jimmy Shubert one was good, I liked hearing the stories about Kinison and Mitzi Shore between their fits of laughter. I figured I'd abandon that episode early.